Democratic members of both the U.S. House and Senate convened
to promote their own plans for promoting broad-based economic
acceleration, paying particular attention to the issue of troubled multiemployer pension plans.

The left-leaning lawmakers are calling their economic vision “A Better
Deal,” one that would “ensure the pensions American workers have earned over a
lifetime of work are safeguarded and protected into the future.” While some of
the lawmakers first started talking about this package of proposals back in
July, the press conference was clearly called to show a unified
opposition working to derail the GOP tax reform proposals under debate in the House and the Senate.

Laying out the “Better Deal,” lawmakers repeatedly suggested
pension plans, “including the massive Central States Teamsters Pension Plan,
the United Mine Workers Pension Plan, and over 200 more plans impacting workers
in every state in the country,” are on the brink of failure and are “threatened
by massive cuts.” As laid out by House and Senate Democratic members, this new
legislation “would put the pension plans back on solid footing, ensure they can
meet their obligations to current retirees and workers for decades to come
without cutting the benefits retirees earned, and safeguard them for the
future.”

Another proposal to emerge is call the “Butch Lewis
Act,” a similar proposal that would essentially be a bolt-on provision to the larger spending
bills slated for votes very soon in Congress. Butch Lewis, the former President of Teamster
Local 100 and “a leader of the fight to save Teamster pensions,” died in
December 2015. His wife, Rita Lewis, spoke during the press conference and thanked the lawmakers for pressing this issue.

For context, in December 2014, Congress approved and President Obama signed a spending bill that included provisions that allow for
dramatic cuts to financially troubled multiemployer pensions. Under this
provision, the pension benefits of retirees could be cut by 30% or more, and
this has already occurred. Before the law was changed, it was illegal for
an employer to cut the pension benefits retirees have earned.

According to Democrats, their legislation “establishes a
legacy fund within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to ensure that
multiemployer pension plans can continue to provide pension benefits to every
eligible American for decades to come.” This legislation is paid for by closing
“two tax loopholes that allow the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying their
fair share of taxes.”